Biography
Curiously renowned for playing an adorably randy teenager who attempted to seduce her own time-traveling son, Leah Thompson became a cinematic darling of the 1980s. A native Midwesterner who fell in love with dance at an early age, Thompson broke into the arts as a ballerina. When a career en pointe did not pan out, undaunted, she moved to New York and in relatively short time began raising eyebrows. Her fresh-scrubbed, all-American good-looks …
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Lea Thompson SlideShow
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Career Milestones
| Appeared in over 20 Burger King commercials | ||
| Joined a professional dance company at 14 | ||
1979 | Danced professionally and studied on scholarship with such companies as the Pennsylvania Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet and the American Ballet Theater's second company, Ballet Repertory | |
1983 | Cast opposite Tom Cruise in "All the Right Moves" | |
1983 | Feature film acting debut, "Jaws 3-D" | |
1984 | Starred with Patrick Swayze and C. Thomas Howell in John Milius' "Red Dawn" | |
1985 | Breakthrough screen role as the young version of Michael J. Fox's mother in "Back to the Future" | |
1986 | Landed leading role in the unfortunate "Howard the Duck," directed by future husband Howard Deutch | |
1986 | Starred in "SpaceCamp," about a group of campers accidentally launched into space | |
1987 | Starred opposite Eric Stoltz and Mary Stuart Masterson in romantic drama "Some Kind of Wonderful," written by John Hughes | |
1988 | Starred in the comedy "Casual Sex?" with Victoria Jackson and Andrew Dice Clay | |
1989 | Reprised role of Michael J. Fox's mother in "Back to the Future Part II" and "Back to the Future Part III" (1990) | |
1989 | TV debut, opposite Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez in TNT movie "Nightbreaker" | |
1992 | Cast in "Article 99," about a group of doctors in a veterans' hospital | |
1993 | Played Alice Mitchell in the genial big screen comedy "Dennis the Menace" | |
1995 | TV series debut as title character on NBC sitcom "Caroline in the City" | |
1998 | Starred in the NBC miniseries "A Will of Their Own" | |
2000 | Played Sally Bowles in a touring company of "Cabaret" | |
2004 | Joined the cast of NBC's "Ed" for three episodes as the title character's philandering ex-girlfriend | |
2005 | Starred in the "Jane Doe" TV-movie franchise developed for the Hallmark Channel; made first appearance as secret agent Cathy Davis/Jane Doe in "Jane Doe: Vanishing Act" | |
2006 | TV directorial debut, "Jane Doe: The Harder They Fall" (Hallmark Channel); also starred | |
2008 | Once again directed and starred in "Jane Doe: Eye of the Beholder" (Hallmark Channel) | |
2008 | Starred in the holiday themed "The Christmas Clause" (ION Television) | |
2011 | Acted alongside Greg Kinnear and Billy Crudup in the crime drama "Thin Ice" | |
2011 | Co-starred on the ABC Family drama series "Switched at Birth" | |
2011 | Portrayed the mother of actress Ginger Rogers in Clint Eastwood's biopic "J. Edgar" | |